During the first interchange of the Greek/Canadian Intercultural Symposium at The Banff Centre in the summer of 1996, we investigated the advantages of adding paper to clay – wet, shredded paper – to give the clay more tensile strength and decrease it’s shrinkage. Thus the term paperclay. Using paperclay, I made two rather strange, certainly un-Greek-like, sculptures.
The first I called, Primordial Soup. It was a continuation of a theme of change that I’d been exploring. It was composed of a metamorphic figure, mounted on a large, black, oval backing that was cast from fluid paperclay poured on a plaster bat. When dry, it was fired in one piece, impossible using clay only without cracking.
The other piece, called The Don’s Folly, was inspired by my long fascination with Don Quixote, who, in this case, was whipping his poor, little horse, Rosinante, for not moving.
To help raise funds for our Greek travel expenses, we Canadians hoped that the work we produced at Banff would sell at the culminating exhibition held at the Banff Centre Art Gallery in Calgary. Despite some grant assistance from Alberta Culture, we also held a series of group exhibition/sales and everyone managed to make it.
